Earlier this fall, 13-year-old Connor McKinlay came up with an idea: put on a day of live music to raise awareness of autism spectrum disorder.

“I feel it would help people understand more,” said Connor, whose younger brother Ewan is on the spectrum.

A recent incident underscored that need for greater understanding. Ewan, 11, had an episode at a downtown business, and the brothers were subsequently banned from returning because the store manager didn’t understand why Ewan was upset.

“When Ewan starts misbehaving, there’s a reason for it, not because he’s a brat and not getting what he wants,” explained the brothers’ mother, Nadra Khan.

Connor’s idea of staging a free, live music-filled day — he is an aspiring musician himself — will become a reality Sunday at BluMartini.

Named in honour of longtime local music champions Greg Richmond and Mavis Livingstone, “A Greavis Gathering” will feature a dozen bands playing between 2 and 9 p.m. at BluMartini on Ontario Street. In addition to the day of free music, the Kingston chapter of Autism Ontario will be on hand offering information and collecting donations should people care to make them.

Connor and Ewan’s incident isn’t uncommon, said Mae Whalen, development co-ordinator for the Kingston branch of Autism Ontario.

“The biggest thing is to try and have people not make those snap judgments when you see something like that happening, even though you may not have experience in it, to recognize that this may not just be a spoiled kid throwing a temper tantrum, or somebody with a mental illness that’s having a meltdown in a store,” she explained.

One of the local branch’s chief mandates is, in fact, to educate people about autism spectrum disorder, Whalen said. One in 66 people is on the autism spectrum disorder, so it affects more of the population than people think, she added.

While the local chapter does hold some fundraisers during the year, the local branch can always use a boost.

“We’d like to do more of these awareness events,” Whalen suggested, “but getting the money to put something like this on, that’s not going to get a ton of financial comeback is very difficult when you have an organization our size.”

While it was Connor’s initial idea to hold a music-filled day of awareness, he left the planning to others.

“It started out as just a thought, and then we got a hold of someone, and that was it,” Connor said.

That someone was Derrick Claridge, who saw a social media post about Connor’s dream and was hooked.

“The story just pulled at me,” he said.

No stranger to putting together fundraising events, Claridge, a musician himself, sent out a few messages to bands he knew and, before a day was done, had filled the dozen slots.

Connor and Ewan’s mother, Nadra Khan, was surprised to hear of her older son’s idea. Like most brothers, they annoy each other from time to time, she said; still, Connor considers his brother ‘smart-istic,’ not autistic.

“I was super, super proud to see him to take initiative like that, to do something like this,” Khan said.

Although he’s familiar with his younger brother’s disorder, Connor, like everyone else, still has things to learn about how to deal with situations as they arise.

“He hasn’t always known how to deal with it, so this is a learning thing for him, too,” Khan said.

And not only did Connor McKinlay come up with the idea of a day of music, the self-taught guitarist and Foo Fighters fan will also be its headliner, backed by a band of seasoned musicians.

And he has already asked his mother that if Sunday’s event is a success, then “maybe we can take it across the province, across the country.”